All posts by George Mann

ELECTION UPDATE

OCTOBER 16, 2024 – In general, most of the toss-up states have been trending towards Trump. A complete reversal from when Biden dropped out.
SENATE – LET’S CALL THIS ONE – This is as near to being 100% certain as you get. The GOP will control the Senate 51-49.
HOUSE – 32 toss-up races will determine the winner. The GOP is up by about 11 seats. Of the 32 toss-up seats, 19 are incumbent Democrats and 13 are incumbent Republicans. If every incumbent wins, the GOP controls the House. With the Democrats having more seats to possibly lose, the odds favor the GOP to win the House. One thing that is very close to certain is the Democrats have almost zero chance of controlling the House, POTUS, and Senate.
ELECTORAL COLLEGE – SEE AUGUST 4TH POST FOR INITIAL AND DETAILED THOUGHTS – I am staying with 43 states (plus territories and DC) as locks. This includes CO and NM. The count is 226 for Harris and 219 for Trump. Let’s get to the 7 tossup states.
AZ – Trump up by about one point and all three October polls have him up by 2-5 points. A small margin of error for the polls. Goes to Trump. Harris 226 Trump 230
WI – Now a dead heat. Last three polls were a Tie. One other October poll favored Trump by two points. This is one state where the polls have been horrible. They have underestimated Trump’s vote by a huge 5%-6%!!!. Thus, this one goes to Trump. Harris 226 Trump 240
MI – This has reversed from Harris by one point to now Trump up by one point. Three of the last four polls have Trump ahead (one to four points) and the other is a Tie. The polls have underestimated Trump’s vote by about 1.5%-3.0%. This one goes to Trump. Harris 226 Trump 255
NV – Harris up by about 0.5%. Both October polls have Harris up by one point. The polls were spot on in 2020 and way underestimated the Dem vote in 2016. This one goes to Harris. Harris 232 Trump 255
NC – Trump is up by over one point. The most current poll has Harris up by three points. However, almost every other poll has Trump up by one to five points. Let’s go to poll accuracy to make a call….they underestimated the Trump vote by 1%-3% and Trump won the state both times. We will give it to Trump. Harris 232 Trump 271. That, of course, puts Trump over the top.
GA – Trump up by less than a point. All four October polls have Trump up by one to six points. The polls were spot on in 2016 but way underestimated the Dem vote in 2020. I will keep this one a tossup. The polls are leaning towards Trump. But, the 2020 error rate offsets that. Tough call. Is anyone watching how ballots will be counted in Atlanta after midnight on Election Day;) Harris 232 Trump 271
PA – Trump up by about 0.5%. Four of the six October polls favor Trump. The polls way underestimated the Trump vote in 2016. But, they were spot on in 2020. I will leave it as a toss-up for now. Like Atlanta, who will be watching the Philadelphia ballots after midnight;) Harris 232 Trump 271
Yes, this will be your typical tight race. And results probably won’t be known for a few days after the election. Lots of lawsuits will be filed:)
But, to me, it is looking like Trump will get 287 or 306. RealClearPolitics has Trump at 302 if a winner has to be picked for every state.
As you can see above, the problem with forecasting a winner is the polls that essentially provide the only data to rely on are prone to errors larger than the results of the polls. At least my analysis above tries to account for the alleged (based on stats, it appears to be valid) concern that GOP voters are understated because many do not trust the pollsters and won’t respond to them.
I will try to post updates at least weekly going forward. Til then…
Shalom,
The Mann

INFLATION UPDATE

OCTOBER 12, 2024 – The September report came in at 2.4%, in line with my estimated 2.4%-2.5%. The 3-month annualized inflation rate is 1.5%. The 6-month annualized inflation rate is 1.9%. These figures are slightly below the annualized rate (2.4%) and thus indicate the annual CPI should remain in this area or decline slightly. The data is predicting a reading of 2.6% next month. I think it will be there or higher.
As a side note, the monthly CPI has been at 0.20% or lower for 5 straight months.
The market has the Fed Funds Rate priced at 4.4%-4.6%. It was recently cut to 5.0%. The Fed has some catching up to do. Til next month.
Shalom,
The Mann

STOCK MARKET UPDATE

UPDATE AUGUST 12, 2024 – One of the reasons I have followed the Elliott Wave Theory for 44 years is it has predetermined points where you need to realize a market isn’t going where initially thought and you need to reverse course. Yesterday, the major market indices (except the Russell 2000) crossed lines that said the recent correction was actually part of the ongoing bull market and not the start of a new bear market. This suggests the economy will be strong thru the 1st Quarter of 2025 at a minimum. Right now, I am seeing +2.0%-2.9% estimated for 3rd Quarter GDP. I suspect the 4th Quarter will be equally strong. Too early to see where 1st Quarter 2025 will be. Albeit, I think the market says there will be a bit of a hiccup then.

Gold is at new all-time highs. Silver is struggling, but should go up into the $30’s per ounce. I did take positions in Copper and Natural Gas as they are at lows that over the past 20 years have signal major bottoms. Cryptos have acted well since the downturn 10 days ago. CPI came in at +2.9% today. I will post about that tomorrow. Hope everyone has had a good Summer. – The Mann

AUGUST 2, 2024 – Wow, what a week this was. As everyone should know, I love Bear Markets way more than Bull Markets. It killed me to be all out bullish for the past 2 years. But, I rode the upturn to its fullest I think and sold all my stocks a week ago on Friday July 26th when the Dow was up about 700 points. And this week as 10-Year Treasury Notes and further out went below 4%, I locked in a 4.8% annuity for 3 years. Easier to sleep this weekend and beyond. Albeit, I did leave some play money to play the downside:) Bear markets are quicker and harsher than bull markets. Easy money to be made if the bear market is truly underway. On to some numbers and forecasts. This is going to be VERY LONG as I am going to layout a lot of specific targets for numerous markets. AGAIN NONE OF THIS INVESTMENT ADVICE. Just my hobby of forecasting the future.
One thing that annoys me most about most analysts are they make forecasts and don’t provide a point (aka as a stop-loss) where they say their forecast is wrong and has to be reconsidered. That leaves their followers not knowing what to do when the person they are following has missed a call. I never care when the market crosses a stop-loss point. Yes, it means my analysis was wrong and, if I traded it, I took a loss. But, if you take trades where your expected profit/loss ratio is at least 3-4/1, then the small losses are nothing compared to the large profits.
DOW 30 INDUSTRIALS – The DOW broke below the 39,411 level today that I mentioned would indicate the peak on July 18th was the Bull Market top. The only problem was this was a closing target, not an intraday figure. The DOW closed at 39,737. Also, the wave theory I follow does not clearly show a change in trend. With all other stock indices clearly in a Bear Market, I am going to assume the DOW is, too. If it gets back to 40,061-40,353, I will probably go short with a stop-loss around 41,000. If it is in a Bear Market, it should not see 41,000 again.
NASDAQ – The Bull Market top occurred at 20,691 on July 10. As I predicted a few weeks ago, the DOW has been much stronger than the NASDAQ. There have been several days recently where the DOW was up a few hundred points and the NASDAQ was down a few hundred. First support is around 17,000-17,500. It is very early, but I am thinking the Bear Market might bottom between 10,500 and 13,500. A 35%-49% decline would be moderate for the NASDAQ. In the past, major declines have been over 80%. Right now, it will take a move to a new high to end the Bear Market case. That isn’t ideal. But, sometimes that is all you have. Right now is not an ideal entry point to short the NASDAQ 100 or S&P 500. Although, I think some more carnage lies ahead next week, a rally after that back to anywhere around 19,000 on the NASDAQ 100 would give me a great place to short. I just am not sure it will ever get back to that level. Today’s close was 18,441. A Bear Market doesn’t like to give short-sellers an easy time either:)
RUSSELL 2000 – The Bull Market top actually occurred back in November 2021 at 2,459. The Bear Market rally topped at 2,300 on July 31. Today’s close was 2,109. If I can get a move back to about 2,172 to close a gap on the chart that occurred today, I will go short with a 2,300 stop-loss. My analysis suggests the high end of the Bear Market bottom range is 1,475 with 965 being the bottom end. Two separate wave relationships point to 965. So, I give that most weight. Thus, a short trade initiated at 2,172 would have an expected profit of 697-1,207 points with a stop-loss being at 128 points. That is a 5.5-9.4/1 profit/loss ratio. Those are the kind of trades I like:)

TREASURY BONDS – The rally I have called for continues and accelerated today. The US 30-Year Treasury Bond price closed at just over 125. Around a 4.1% yield. The main target is around 131 or about a 3.5% yield. The high-end price target is about 144 or about a 3.0% yield. I guess if I had to pick a stop-loss point it would be about 120.5.

ECONOMY – I have reiterated many times that economists waste their time trying to forecast the economy when the stock market tells us what is happening 6 months into the future. The market has correctly forecast the strong economy for the past 2 years and already said it will be strong through the end of the year. However, if the market is in a Bear Market, then it is telling us that next January and February will show us an economy in trouble. As I mentioned almost a year ago, a way early indicator was pointing towards a 2025 recession. The market is now pointing that way, too. And the market doesn’t get this wrong. My expectation is that the economists and pundits that have been dead wrong for two years about a recession occurring will start to say no chance of a recession in 2025 because the Federal Reserve starts lowering interest rates in September and interest rates fall significantly as I have forecast. Also, Trueflation is now down below 1.4%. The pundits will be overwhelming you with how great things are as inflation is tamed and mortgage rates are down, blah blah blah. I do hope they will be bullish right as the recession gets underway. As a reminder, when the yield curve (10-year minus 2-year Bonds) gets to +100bp we will be in a recession. It is down to about -20bp. The lowest I have seen in a year or two. We have lots of lead time to get from -20bp to +100bp. Could that lead time be 6-9 months as the market has indicated? Coincidence? 🙂

UNEMPLOYMENT – On July 1st, I posted it will be 4.4%-4.5% by year end. It went up to 4.3% in today’s report. The whole world now knows about the Sahm Rule (I will let you look it up to see what it is.). Supposedly, it was triggered today. I thought it already had been. I think there is a similar rule with a different name measured in a slightly different way. Everyone talks about its 100% perfect record predicting recessions since 1970 or such. What everyone doesn’t know apparently is that the rule has only a 50% accuracy rate when unemployment rates get adjusted after the initial announcement. A flip of the coin is definitely more accurate than economists and weather forecasters! But, it doesn’t help me in my analysis.

GOLD & SILVER – I am getting tired. If you are still reading, I am sure you are, too:) The gold target is still $2500-$2600. Silver looks extremely good with a move to the $34-$40 range likely. I will probably hop on this trade Monday morning.

LASTLY – One last thing came to mind. Over a year ago when the SVB debacle occurred, I posted about buying when no one else wanted to. Everyone predicted 400+ banks to close up and the housing market to crash. Here is what those experts cost you if you didn’t invest in those sectors. Granted no one would be able to buy at the exact low and high. But, the bull moves were as follows – The S&P Regional Index (KRE) bottomed at 34.52 and the recent top was 59.59. A 72% move. Even if you just caught the middle part of the move for a 50% profit remember all of those pundits that told you banks were in trouble. The S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) was around 64 at the time of the SVB event. But, the bull move had started a year earlier at 51. The recent top was an ALL-TIME HIGH at 121.23. Over the past 15 months it went up a measly 89%. If you threw in the towel today, you would have made over 70%. Remember to thank all of those people that have been predicting a housing market crash. And seriously folks, look up on YouTube or wherever the videos from around the SVB event forward and find those analysts that were forecasting armageddon – and NEVER EVER listen to them again!!!

I might be back here sooner than later. I live for bear markets. I get very active when they are occurring. This bear doesn’t hibernate:)

Shalom,

The Mann


FINAL RULE ON AVM QUALITY CONTROL STANDARDS

JULY 25, 2024 – The Federal Agencies have issued the Final Rule on Real Estate Valuations: Quality Control Standards for Automated Valuation Models. Hopefully, you can cut and paste the URL below. If not, go to an Agency website and type in the above words in Search and it should come up.
https://www.fdic.gov/news/financial-institution-letters/2024/final-rule-real-estate-valuations-quality-control-standards?source=govdelivery&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

This guidance was desperately needed because we all know computer models actively seek out the skin color and/or gender of borrowers. Once they find this information and the borrower(s) is not of a specific hated class, then the AVM will apply a -20% adjustment to whatever initial value it generates. If the borrower is of a specific hated class, then obviously no downward adjustment is applied. Who knows, maybe even an upward adjustment is applied heh heh
Yes, sarcasm intended. What a freakin’ joke! Gotta watch out for them darn racist and sexist computer models;)
Shalom,
The Mann

ECONOMY UPDATE

JULY 29, 2024 – A quick note that the 2-year vs. 10-year Treasury spread is down to a -16bp. Probably the lowest it has been in a few years. If you have read my prior posts, I mentioned that a coincident indicator will be when this spread hits +100bp — at that point we will be in the middle of a recession. The good part is first it has to get back to par and then it has a long way to get to +100bp. So, we have ample time to know a recession is the light we see at the end of the tunnel. Just another item that is starting to increase the odds of a recession occurring in 2025. Probably the best indicator we will have is when we see the headline – ‘Economists do not see a recession occurring in 2025.’ 🙂

JULY 26, 2024 – Just to be transparent, I cashed in most of my holdings today. When the Dow is up 700 points it is a good day to sell:) We continue to see the Dow perform way better than the NASDAQ. My expectation of one more new high move by the Dow not being confirmed by the NASDAQ looks better and better.

JULY 25, 2024 – 2nd Quarter GDP came out above expectations at +2.8%. We have now completed 2 full years of strong economic growth. Something that 99% of the economists and pundits said would not occur.
I do some of my best thinking in my dreams. I have long thought of them as an alternate reality and am amazed at some of the things they come up with. As I dreamed about the economy, an analogy came to mind. A traffic stoplight.
For the past 2 years, the economy has been on solid Green. Economists and pundits kept calling for Yellow or full Red. We never had a chance of such and never came close.
However, for the first time in over 2 years, I am switching my signal from solid Green to that hard to see split second when Green starts to turn to Yellow. As I have mentioned many times, the stock market (Dow 30 for my analysis) is forecasting the economy 6 months into the future. Right now, that is the end of February 2025. Basically, next Spring.
The NASDAQ 100 has a good chance of having topped on July 10th. Thus, it would be in the first stages of a Bear Market. My analysis is calling for the Dow to make one more move to new highs peaking as low as 42,000. 43,000 still remains possible. The NASDAQ 100 would also rally. But, not to new highs. If the Dow does put in a final top over the next month, then it would be saying the economy will peak by the 1st Quarter of 2025 and start a downturn after that. I forget how long ago it was that I mentioned a long lead time indicator was suggesting a recession in 2025. Also, the first year of a Presidential cycle often sees a recession.
In summary, it looks like the economy’s Green light is just starting to change to Yellow. Using another analogy, the stock market appears to be the first car on a rollercoaster that has passed the top and started downward.
I will say that my 50+ years of experience says that stock market tops are tough to call as they stretch out over a period of time. Stock market bottoms are usually easy to see as they take a ‘V-formation.’ Interestingly, commodities do just the opposite.
Lastly, ALL sentiment indicators say almost all stock markets (NASDAQ, S&P 500, Dow, Russell, etc) are around a top.
We shall see how the next month or so plays out. There is a small chance the Dow has already topped, too. I will be watching closely.
Shalom,
The Mann

Reconsiderations of Value for Residential Real Estate Valuations

JULY 21, 2024 – The Federal Agencies have issued the ‘Interagency Guidance on Reconsiderations of Value for Residential Real Estate Valuations.’ You can cut and paste this link to get to the website that will provide you additional information.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/bcreg20240718a.htm
The only item I will point is the following quote:
“This final guidance is supervisory guidance that does not have the force and effect of law or regulation and does not impose any new requirements on supervised institutions.”

HOUSING MATH DOESN’T ADD UP

UPDATE JULY 17, 2024 – So far, no objections to what I wrote below. I wanted to add some data. According to Zillow, inventory is higher than last year in 48 out of the 50 Major Metropolitan areas. It rose last month in 45 of the 50 markets. If we are so short on housing, why aren’t all of the houses for sale bought instantly? How can the inventory possibly increase? And, no, it is not because of high (not really high, around where they should be) mortgage rates. Simply put, the forever housing shortage rant is a hoax. False information. Propaganda.

JULY 1, 2024 – Here is your chance to email me why NAR and the NAHB may be even remotely right about our housing shortage and why I am wrong. I researched the intraweb, as my step-daughter jokingly refers to it, and found that NAR has said we have a shortage of 4.5 to 5.5 million housing units. Their logic is the annual number of houses built since the Year 2000 has been below what was needed. To paraphrase Henry Ford, that is bunk.
Let’s look at some facts and some math. First, the demand for houses by 18-55 years olds today is about 25% (!) of what it was when Baby Boomers were the same age. Second, annual population growth has declined significantly from around 2% at the start of this century to 0.53% last year. I have seen as high as 0.7% in the past few years.
Yes, total population has obviously increased over time. But, it is not double or triple what it was 20 or 40 years ago. Demand for housing is about 1/3 to 1/4th of what it used to be. So, you cannot continue to forecast based on 1980s or 1990s rates. As I note in other posts, annual GDP of +3% or +4% has been replaced with a good-excellent range of +1% to +2%. Everything is slowing down and will continue to slow down for decades ahead.
To the math….As of today, the intraweb says we have 341,814,420 people. Let’s say last year’s growth rate was low and the 0.7% rates before that were high. We will use 0.6%. (I note that CoStar uses +0.5% annually for the next 5 years.)
That means this year’s population growth is about 2,050,000 people. Average household size was 2.53 people in 2020. It too has been declining for decades. Let’s assume it is down to 2.40 today. The math says we need about 850,000 new housing units for the upcoming years.
Laughingly, NAR says we need 1.8 million new housing units and since only 1.4 million are being built we will add to our shortage. In fact, based on real math, we will have an oversupply of 550,000 housing units brought onto the market this year alone!!!! Every report I see shows apartment vacancy rates are way up from 3 years ago (about doubled in past 3 years nationwide!) and new homebuilders have a crisis of oversupply. NO ONE but NAR suggests we are not building enough housing units.
So, here’s the riddle to me. If we are short millions of housing units, wouldn’t vacancy rates for SFRs and apartment properties decline each year? If we aren’t building enough units, wouldn’t vacancy go down? Wouldn’t we see people lined up to get into the next apartment or SFR unit that becomes available?
According to CoStar, the USA had 927,018 vacant apartment units in 2021. As of today, we have 1,544,497 vacant apartment units. Over 600,000 apartment units have become vacant in a period where NAR screams that every year we are increasing our shortage by hundreds of thousands of units. Where is the logic? This doesn’t even include our 10 million vacant SFRs! (BTW, this count does NOT include second/vacation homes.)
I have contended for years that if we didn’t build a single housing unit nationwide for 5-10 years we still would not absorb all of our vacant units.
I look forward to your thoughts. The one I will say that doesn’t work for me is the vacant units are not where the people want to be. Some may be. But, most of the new supply for decades has been in the Sun Belt where the greatest demand has been. And people can live anywhere and move anywhere (especially since 2020). A few units might be old and badly located. But, old product is removed from the stockpile annually.
I will leave this one at that. Depending on feedback, I might follow up with another post on the subject.
Shalom,
The Mann
GeorgeRMann@Aol.com

MID-YEAR UPDATE

JULY 3, 2024 – I forgot two items in post below. The next wave up should take gold to $2500-$2600 ounce and the next wave up should take Bitcoin well above $100,000. And most importantly, Happy 248th Birthday to the USA!

JULY 1, 2024 – As you get older, the years fly by quicker and quicker:) Here’s an update on a few items.
STOCK MARKET – The Dow has now put in two lows in the 37,500-39,000 that I had forecast for being a bottom. I think it will put in a third low around 38,500 before the Summer is over. Then we should see a strong rally to the final Bull Market top of 43,000+.
BONDS – Treasury Bonds are at a critical junction. I don’t like those because what it says is we may go up or we may go down. Anyone can say that lol. I am sticking with the bullish case and expect a turn up at any moment literally with interest rates declining for several months. Even if the weakness occurs, it just delays the up move in prices and thus downturn in interest rates.
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE – Simply put, I expect it to be 4.4%-4.5% by yearend.
RECESSION – Today is the 2nd anniversary of a very strong economic expansion. As I noted all along, it was missed by the vast majority of economists and pundits. Also remember, until the 2030’s when we see +100% annual GDP, we will not see annual rates of 3%+ anymore. Annual growth over 1% is good and over 2% is exceptional and cannot be sustained for long. As with interest rates, people need to adjust to the new normal. Is a recession finally the horizon. Yes, finally! I mentioned last year that a longer-term indicator was suggesting a recession might occur in 2025. First years of a presidential cycle are usually the weakest. Also, if the stock market does top out this Fall and turns down significantly, then it will be signally for a recession at the end of Spring into the Summer of 2025. As I mentioned awhile back, when the economists and pundits give up on a recession, then we know one is right around the corner:) Numerous articles like the following have come out this year:
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/yield-curve-disinversion-is-recession-signal-watch-2024-06-04/
Although some argue this indicator has not been wrong since World War II, it was wrong in 1966. What is significant about that? That was the year the Dow first broke 1,000 and was at all-time highs. Similar to today.
In the above article and others, people start grasping at straws and say well maybe it isn’t wrong, yet. In the past recessions have started 13-22 months or whatever after the inversion occurs (fyi it was July 2022 when it occurred this time around). We are now passing 24 months and with a near zero chance of a recession occurring this year, we will be at 30+ months. Time to just admit this, and another dozen indicators I have mentioned in past blogs, indicator is simply wrong. Come on, admit it:)
Enjoy your Summer and an interesting Fall. Only 126 days til the 2024 Presidential Election. But, sadly, only 1,587 days til the 2028 Presidential Election and we know the campaigning begins after the 2024 election is settled (which no longer is the day or night of the election itself).
Shalom,
The Mann

THE EUROPEAN UNION BASICALLY ADOPTS MLV

JUNE 7, 2024 – The following comes from The European Valuer Journal:
The ‘Banking Package’ included a revision of the Capital
Requirements Regulation (CRR) which introduced a new
concept of ‘property value’ founded on ‘prudently conserv
ative valuation criteria’ that valuers will have to accommo
date alongside market value. Soon to be on the EU statute
books, it will come into effect on 01.01.2025 the same day
as EVS 2025. The Blue Book will contain a Guidance Note
with an interpretation of the new CRR concepts that the
European Valuation Standards Board issued – and that this
Journal liberally commented and publicised – shortly after
it became clear that the relevant provision had achieved
political consensus and wouldn’t change.
The other CRR game changer was Parliament and
Council’s ECB-inspired rejection of the Commission’s
attempt to extend banks’ freedom to use stand-alone,
valuer-free AVMs to revaluation and even to valuation
at origination. This extraordinary event will have conse
quences. Reiteration by the highest European authorities
of the central role of the qualified independent valuer
in ensuring the safety and stability of financial and real
estate markets will command a revision of the European
Banking Authority Guidelines on loan origination and moni
toring that confined mortgage valuers to a ‘desktop’ role so
poorly defined that banks could interpret it as little more
than an exercise in rubberstamping AVM ‘value proposals’
==================================
Mortgage Lending Value (a 120+ year old German valuation concept) was introduced in the USA about 15 years ago. It has not gained traction as Americans like Market Price and the bubbles it produces. MLV basically eliminates the ups and downs of property value and provides a stable number to loan against. The EU has now adopted the ‘prudently conservative valuation criteria.’ This is essentially MLV. But, other countries didn’t want to simply adopt a German concept. Maybe a decade or two from now this will become part of Basel and American lenders (and appraisers) will be forced to use this value instead of Market Value (Price).
It is also interesting that the EU basically killed the idea of AVMs.
Shalom,
The Mann

BULLISH ON WHEAT

MAY 15, 2024 – I haven’t been paying attention to my March 22nd forecast for a Bull Market in Wheat. On that date the December 2024 futures was about $6 after bottoming a few weeks earlier at $5.65. The futures closed today at $7.11 after peaking at $7.29 a few days ago. If I were trading the futures, I would be ecstatic and would probably grab some profit.
But, just forecasting here and the forecast was for a significant increase in price over the next 12 months….now 10 months.
I expect Wheat prices to increase significantly over the next 12 months. I will revisit this at yearend to see how things turn out.
As an aside, no need to rush out and store up on bread:)
Shalom,
The Mann